How is History written - Sources

Below is a historical + historiographical map of the kinds of sources used to construct Indian history.

Important note on the categories

Ancient India usually means from prehistoric/Harappan times to roughly c. 600–750 CE. 

Pre-Islamic India can include all periods before major Islamic political power in North India, so it may extend into early medieval India, roughly c. 750–1200 CE, especially for Rajput, Chola, Rashtrakuta, Pratihara, Pala, Chalukya, Paramara, etc.

Also, “Muslim history of India” should not be read only as “history of Muslims.”

 In historiography it usually means the history of Indo-Islamic polities, Persianate courts, Muslim dynasties, Islamic institutions, Sufi networks, Indo-Persian culture, and Muslim communities, but these sources also contain a lot about non-Muslims, economy, caste, cities, agriculture, temples, merchants, artisans, and regional societies.

---

1) Sources used to construct Ancient Indian history

A. Archaeology and material remains

These are foundational because many early periods have no continuous narrative chronicles.

Main types:

• Prehistoric tools, microliths, Paleolithic/Neolithic sites.

• Harappan/Indus sites: Harappa, Mohenjo-daro, Dholavira, Rakhigarhi, Lothal, Kalibangan, etc.

• Settlement remains, pottery, seals, terracotta figures, beads, weights, burials.

• Megalithic graves and iron-age material.

• Stupas, monasteries, temples, caves, pillars, sculpture.

• Urban remains from Taxila, Pataliputra, Ujjain, Mathura, Sanchi, Amaravati, Nagarjunakonda, etc.

• Art-historical evidence: Gandhara, Mathura, Amaravati, Gupta sculpture.

• Scientific data: carbon dating, archaeobotany, zooarchaeology, metallurgical analysis, DNA studies, palaeoenvironmental studies.

Historiographically, archaeology became especially important because early India often lacks year-by-year political chronicles. Modern historians use archaeology to correct or balance literary claims.

B. Inscriptions / epigraphy

Inscriptions are among the strongest sources because they are usually contemporary or near-contemporary records. Epigraphia Indica was created as a major corpus of inscriptions; it published inscriptions in facsimile, transliteration, and English translation, mainly under the Archaeological Survey from 1892 onward. It became one of the most important foundations for reconstructing ancient Indian dynasties, chronology, land grants, religion, administration, and political geography. (MANAS)

Important inscription categories:

• Ashokan edicts: rock edicts, pillar edicts, minor rock edicts.

• Brahmi and Kharosthi inscriptions.

• Cave inscriptions: Barabar, Nasik, Karle, Kanheri, Ajanta, etc.

• Donative inscriptions by monks, merchants, guilds, queens, officials.

• Copper-plate grants.

• Prashastis / royal eulogies, such as the Allahabad Pillar inscription of Samudragupta.

• Temple inscriptions.

• Buddhist, Jain, Brahmanical religious inscriptions.

• Early Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions.

• South Indian inscriptions: Pallava, Chola, Pandya, Chera, Chalukya, Rashtrakuta, Hoysala, Kakatiya, etc.

Major published inscription corpora:

• Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum

• Epigraphia Indica

• South Indian Inscriptions

• Epigraphia Carnatica

• Indian Antiquary

• Annual Reports on South Indian Epigraphy

• Arabic and Persian Supplement / Indo-Moslemica for later Islamic-period inscriptions

Inscriptions help fix rulers, dates, genealogies, grants, taxation, land systems, religious patronage, and boundaries. The INFLIBNET history module notes that inscriptions are “contemporary records” of high value for reconstructing ancient and medieval political and cultural history. (E-Books Inflibnet)

C. Coins / numismatics

Coins are used for chronology, economy, trade, dynastic history, religion, and political geography.

Important coin groups:

• Punch-marked coins.

• Indo-Greek coins.

• Indo-Scythian / Saka coins.

• Indo-Parthian coins.

• Kushan coins.

• Satavahana coins.

• Gupta gold coins.

• Western Kshatrapa coins.

• Roman coins found in South India.

• Early medieval regional coinages.

Coins are especially important for dynasties where texts are thin. For example, many Indo-Greek, Saka, Parthian, and Kushan rulers are known partly or largely through coin evidence. Coins also help historians infer trade networks, imperial reach, minting practices, royal titles, scripts, religious imagery, and economic prosperity. (E-Books Inflibnet)

D. Indigenous religious and philosophical texts

These are essential but must be used critically because many are layered, edited over centuries, and not written as modern history.

Vedic corpus

• Rigveda

• Samaveda

• Yajurveda

• Atharvaveda

• Brahmanas

• Aranyakas

• Upanishads

• Vedangas

• Shrauta and Grihya Sutras

Used for: early Indo-Aryan society, ritual, political vocabulary, social categories, economy, kinship, geography, religious ideas.

Epics

• Mahabharata

• Ramayana

Used cautiously for: kingship, dharma, social ideals, political imagination, kinship, warfare, geography, pilgrimage, ethical norms. They cannot be read as simple factual chronicles.

Puranas

• Vishnu Purana

• Vayu Purana

• Matsya Purana

• Bhagavata Purana

• Brahmanda Purana, etc.

Used for: dynastic lists, cosmology, sacred geography, religious history, social ideals. Their genealogies are useful but difficult because of mythic layering and later interpolations.

Dharmashastra and legal texts

• Manusmriti

• Yajnavalkya Smriti

• Narada Smriti

• Gautama, Baudhayana, Apastamba Dharmasutras

Used for: social order, caste ideology, gender norms, inheritance, law, ritual status, kingship. Historians do not treat them as direct descriptions of actual society; they are normative texts.

Arthashastra tradition

• Kautilya’s Arthashastra

Used for: statecraft, taxation, espionage, administration, economy, urban regulation, diplomacy. Historiographical debate continues over its date, composition, and relation to Mauryan practice.

E. Buddhist sources

• Pali Canon / Tipitaka

• Jataka stories

• Dipavamsa

• Mahavamsa

• Ashokavadana

• Divyavadana

• Lalitavistara

• Milindapanha

• Buddhist Sanskrit texts

• Tibetan and Chinese Buddhist translations

• Monastic records

Used for: early kingdoms, urbanisation, trade, monastic patronage, social life, Buddhism, Mauryan/Ashokan memory, transregional networks.

F. Jain sources

• Jain Agamas

• Kalpa Sutra

• Parishishtaparvan

• Jain Prabandhas

• Hemachandra’s writings

• Jain temple inscriptions and manuscript traditions

Used for: Mahavira, early urban society, merchant networks, western India, royal patronage, sectarian history, social ethics, regional political memory.

G. Secular/literary Sanskrit, Prakrit, Tamil and regional works

Important examples:

• Panini’s Ashtadhyayi

• Patanjali’s Mahabhashya

• Kalidasa’s works

• Bhasa, Sudraka, Vishakhadatta

• Bana’s Harshacharita

• Kalhana’s Rajatarangini

• Sangam literature: Ettuthokai, Pattuppattu, Purananuru, Akananuru

• Tolkappiyam

• Tamil epics: Silappadikaram, Manimekalai

• Early Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam and Marathi literary traditions

Used for: language, society, court culture, regions, economy, gender norms, warfare, kingship, urban life, religious life.

H. Foreign accounts for ancient India

These are very important because they provide outside perspectives, but they must be checked against Indian and archaeological evidence.

Greek and Roman

• Herodotus: early references to India.

• Ctesias: semi-legendary material.

• Megasthenes, Indica: Mauryan India; known through later quotations.

• Arrian

• Strabo

• Pliny the Elder

• Ptolemy

• Periplus of the Erythraean Sea: Indian Ocean trade.

• Diodorus

• Curtius Rufus

Used for: Mauryan polity, geography, trade, ports, social customs, western knowledge of India.

Chinese Buddhist pilgrims

• Faxian / Fa-Hien: Gupta-period India.

• Xuanzang / Hiuen Tsang: 7th-century India, Harsha, Buddhist sites.

• Yijing / I-Tsing: Buddhist monastic practice and travel networks.

The NCERT and other academic summaries treat these travellers as central to reconstructing religious, social, and political life, especially Buddhism and pilgrimage networks. (eGyankosh)

Arab and Persian geographers before major Sultanate rule

• Al-Masudi

• Al-Istakhri

• Ibn Hawqal

• Al-Idrisi

• Sulaiman the Merchant

• Abu Zayd al-Sirafi

• Al-Biruni, Kitab al-Hind

Al-Biruni is especially important because he studied Indian texts, sciences, religion, caste, geography, astronomy, and customs with unusual seriousness for a medieval outsider.

---

2) Sources used to construct Medieval Indian history

Medieval India is reconstructed from a much wider range of sources: Persian chronicles, Sanskrit and regional texts, inscriptions, coins, architecture, farmans, revenue documents, biographies, Sufi texts, European travel accounts, and local records.

A. Persian chronicles and court histories

These are central for the Delhi Sultanate, regional Sultanates, and Mughals.

Early Indo-Islamic / conquest-period sources

• Chachnama: Sindh and Muhammad bin Qasim tradition.

• Al-Biruni’s Kitab al-Hind.

• Hasan Nizami, Taj-ul-Ma’asir

• Minhaj-i-Siraj Juzjani, Tabaqat-i Nasiri

• Fakhr-i Mudabbir’s works

• Amir Khusrau’s historical masnavis and prose works

The INFLIBNET source module notes Amir Khusrau’s importance because he was an eyewitness to many events and his work Khazain-ul-Futuh records Alauddin Khalji’s campaigns. (E-Books Inflibnet)

Delhi Sultanate sources

• Ziauddin Barani, Tarikh-i Firoz Shahi

• Barani, Fatawa-i Jahandari

• Shams-i Siraj Afif, Tarikh-i Firoz Shahi

• Isami, Futuh-us-Salatin

• Yahya bin Ahmad Sirhindi, Tarikh-i Mubarak Shahi

• Ibn Battuta, Rihla

• Futuhat-i Firoz Shahi

• Malfuzat and Sufi texts

Barani’s Tarikh-i Firoz Shahi is used for the Delhi Sultanate from Balban to Firoz Shah Tughlaq. (E-Books Inflibnet)

Mughal sources

• Babur, Baburnama / Tuzuk-i Baburi

• Gulbadan Begum, Humayun-nama

• Abu’l Fazl, Akbarnama

• Abu’l Fazl, Ain-i Akbari

• Badauni, Muntakhab-ut-Tawarikh

• Nizamuddin Ahmad, Tabaqat-i Akbari

• Jahangir, Tuzuk-i Jahangiri

• Abdul Hamid Lahori, Padshahnama

• Inayat Khan, Shah Jahan Nama

• Muhammad Kazim, Alamgirnama

• Saqi Mustaid Khan, Maasir-i Alamgiri

• Khafi Khan, Muntakhab-ul Lubab

• Bhimsen, Nuskha-i Dilkusha

• Ishwardas Nagar, Futuhat-i Alamgiri

• Manucci, Storia do Mogor

The Akbarnama and Ain-i Akbari are especially important because they provide detailed material on Akbar’s reign, policies, administration, revenue, provinces, officials, social groups, and imperial ideology. (eGyankosh)

B. Administrative, legal and revenue documents

These are very important for social and economic history.

Examples:

• Farmans

• Sanads

• Nishans

• Parwanas

• Revenue manuals

• Waqf deeds

• Madad-i ma‘ash grants

• Jagir and mansab records

• Imperial orders

• Local court documents

• Qazi records where available

• Persian administrative manuals

• Maratha, Rajput, Deccan and regional state papers

INFLIBNET notes that Muslim dynasties and later Deccan powers issued inscriptions, farmans and sanads in Arabic, Persian and Urdu; these are used for administration, grants, political authority, and land systems. (E-Books Inflibnet)

C. Inscriptions of medieval India

Important inscription types:

• Arabic inscriptions

• Persian inscriptions

• Sanskrit inscriptions under Hindu and Muslim rulers

• Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali, Odia inscriptions

• Mosque inscriptions

• Dargah inscriptions

• Temple inscriptions

• Fort inscriptions

• Tomb inscriptions

• Bridge, tank, stepwell, sarai and garden inscriptions

• Copper-plate grants

• Vijayanagara inscriptions

• Bahmani, Deccan Sultanate, Mughal and regional inscriptions

The Arabic and Persian epigraphy of India became a specialized field, and the Epigraphia Indica tradition included a later “Indo-Moslemica” / Arabic and Persian supplement for inscriptions from the Islamic period. (MANAS)

D. Coins

Medieval coins are used for dynastic chronology, sovereignty, economy, religious-political messaging, mint towns, trade and territorial control.

Examples:

• Delhi Sultanate coinage: Ghurid, Mamluk, Khalji, Tughlaq, Sayyid, Lodi.

• Deccan Sultanate coins: Bahmani, Adil Shahi, Qutb Shahi, Nizam Shahi, Imad Shahi, Barid Shahi.

• Bengal Sultanate coins.

• Gujarat Sultanate coins.

• Malwa, Jaunpur, Kashmir, Sindh coinages.

• Mughal coins: gold mohur, silver rupee, copper dam.

• Vijayanagara coinage.

• Rajput coinage.

• Maratha coinage.

Coins help fix chronology, ruler titles, mints, frontiers, imperial claims, religious formulae, and economic circulation. (E-Books Inflibnet)

E. Architecture and monuments

Material culture is central for medieval history.

Sources include:

• Mosques

• Temples

• Dargahs

• Tombs

• Madrasas

• Forts

• Palaces

• Sarais

• Baolis / stepwells

• Tanks and canals

• Gardens

• Caravanserais

• City walls

• Market remains

• Paintings and murals

• Manuscript illustrations

Examples:

• Qutb complex

• Alai Darwaza

• Tughlaqabad

• Firoz Shah Kotla

• Gulbarga, Bidar, Bijapur, Golconda

• Vijayanagara / Hampi

• Fatehpur Sikri

• Agra Fort

• Red Fort

• Humayun’s Tomb

• Taj Mahal

• regional temples and temple-city networks

Monuments are used to study technology, patronage, aesthetics, labour, religious symbolism, political legitimacy, urbanism, and cultural exchange.

F. Sufi, religious and biographical sources

These are especially important for social, religious and intellectual history.

Types:

• Malfuzat: conversations of Sufi saints.

• Maktubat: letters.

• Tazkiras: biographical dictionaries.

• Silsila records.

• Dargah records.

• Hagiographies.

• Chishti, Suhrawardi, Qadiri, Naqshbandi texts.

Important examples:

• Fawa’id al-Fu’ad: conversations of Nizamuddin Auliya.

• Siyar al-Auliya

• Siyar al-Arifin

• Maktubat-i Imam Rabbani

• Akhbar al-Akhyar

Used for: Sufi networks, urban society, spiritual authority, language, patronage, everyday life, Hindu-Muslim interactions, religious debates.

G. Bhakti, vernacular and regional sources

Medieval Indian history cannot be reconstructed only from Persian court chronicles.

Important non-Persian sources:

• Kannada vachanas

• Tamil Shaiva and Vaishnava texts

• Marathi abhangs

• Sant literature: Kabir, Ravidas, Namdev, Tukaram, Dadu, Nanak, etc.

• Sikh sources: Janamsakhis, Adi Granth, later Sikh chronicles.

• Rajasthani khyats and vanshavalis.

• Bengali mangalkavyas.

• Assamese buranjis.

• Telugu and Kannada court literature.

• Tamil temple inscriptions and matha records.

• Marathi bakhars.

• Rajput genealogies.

• Local temple chronicles.

• Village records.

Used for: regional society, caste, devotional movements, language, social protest, political memory, gender, peasant and artisan worlds.

H. Travellers’ accounts

Travellers are heavily used, but with caution because they often misunderstood local society or wrote for foreign audiences.

Important medieval and early modern travellers:

• Al-Biruni

• Ibn Battuta

• Marco Polo

• Abd al-Razzaq Samarqandi

• Afanasii Nikitin

• Duarte Barbosa

• Domingo Paes

• Fernao Nuniz

• Niccolao Manucci

• Jean-Baptiste Tavernier

• François Bernier

• Peter Mundy

• Antonio Monserrate

• Ralph Fitch

• William Hawkins

• Thomas Roe

• Jean de Thévenot

• Sebastien Manrique

• Mahmud Wali Balkhi

NCERT’s traveller chapter specifically lists Al-Biruni, Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta, Abd al-Razzaq, Nikitin, Barbosa, Monserrate, Mahmud Wali Balkhi, Peter Mundy, Tavernier and Bernier as travellers whose accounts are used for medieval Indian history.

I. European company records

For late medieval / early modern India, especially 16th–18th centuries:

• Portuguese Estado da Índia records.

• Dutch VOC records.

• English East India Company factory records.

• French Compagnie des Indes records.

• Jesuit letters.

• Missionary reports.

• Factory diaries.

• Shipping records.

• Trade correspondence.

• Cartographic records.

• Diplomatic letters.

Used for: trade, ports, textiles, prices, diplomacy, warfare, coastal states, Mughal-European relations, Deccan politics, and Indian Ocean networks.

---

3) Sources used to construct Pre-Islamic Indian history

This category overlaps with ancient India, but also includes early medieval India before major Islamic rule.

A. For prehistoric and Harappan India

• Excavated settlements.

• Pottery sequences.

• Stone tools.

• Harappan seals and sealings.

• Weights and measures.

• Urban planning.

• Drainage systems.

• Burials.

• Craft workshops.

• Long-distance trade objects.

• Indus script inscriptions, still undeciphered.

• Environmental and climate data.

The Indus script remains undeciphered, so historians cannot use it like readable inscriptions; they rely on archaeology, settlement patterns, material culture, trade objects and comparative studies.

B. Vedic and post-Vedic sources

• Vedas

• Brahmanas

• Aranyakas

• Upanishads

• Sutra literature

• Vedangas

• Dharmasutras

• Shrauta and Grihya ritual texts

Used for: pastoralism, ritual society, early political formations, lineage, social stratification, gender norms, sacred geography.

C. Epic-Puranic sources

• Mahabharata

• Ramayana

• Puranas

• Itihasa-Purana tradition

• Genealogies of solar and lunar dynasties

Used cautiously for dynastic memory, political ideals, sacred geography, social imagination, and evolving religious ideas.

D. Buddhist and Jain sources

• Pali Canon

• Jatakas

• Buddhist chronicles

• Jain Agamas

• Jain narrative literature

• Monastic records

Used for: Mahajanapadas, cities, merchants, trade routes, republics/ganasanghas, Buddhism, Jainism, social groups.

E. Mauryan and post-Mauryan sources

• Ashokan inscriptions

• Arthashastra

• Megasthenes

• Buddhist Ashoka legends

• Puranic dynastic lists

• Coins

• Archaeology of cities and routes

F. Early medieval pre-Islamic sources

This is where “pre-Islamic” extends beyond “ancient.”

Important source-types:

• Copper-plate land grants.

• Temple inscriptions.

• Royal prashastis.

• Sanskrit court poetry.

• Regional inscriptions in Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Odia, Marathi, Bengali.

• Temple records.

• Chola inscriptions.

• Pallava, Chalukya, Rashtrakuta, Pratihara, Pala, Sena, Paramara, Chandella, Kalachuri, Gahadavala inscriptions.

• Rajatarangini for Kashmir.

• Al-Biruni for 11th-century Indian society and knowledge.

• Arab geographers for western coast, Sindh and trade.

• Chinese Buddhist records for pilgrimage and monasteries.

G. South Indian sources

Very important because South Indian history is especially inscription-rich.

• Sangam literature.

• Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions.

• Pallava inscriptions.

• Chola temple inscriptions.

• Pandya inscriptions.

• Chera records.

• Chalukya, Rashtrakuta, Hoysala, Kakatiya inscriptions.

• Copper plates such as Velvikudi, Leiden plates, Tiruvalangadu plates.

• Temple architecture.

• Bronzes and icons.

• Maritime trade records.

H. Arab trade and geography sources before Sultanate dominance

These are important for pre-Islamic India, especially coastal and commercial history:

• Sulaiman the Merchant

• Abu Zayd al-Sirafi

• Al-Masudi

• Al-Istakhri

• Ibn Hawqal

• Al-Idrisi

• Al-Biruni

Used for: Sindh, western coast, Malabar, trade, ports, Indian Ocean commerce, religion, science, caste, geography.

---

4) Sources used to construct Muslim history of India

This includes political, social, religious, cultural and intellectual history of Muslims and Indo-Islamic states in India.

A. Arabic sources

Especially for early contacts, Sindh, trade, geography, and early Islamic knowledge of India.

Important sources:

• Chachnama

• Al-Baladhuri

• Al-Tabari references

• Al-Masudi

• Al-Istakhri

• Ibn Hawqal

• Al-Idrisi

• Sulaiman the Merchant

• Abu Zayd al-Sirafi

• Al-Biruni, Kitab al-Hind

Used for: conquest of Sindh, Indian Ocean trade, geography, religion, science, caste, customs, ports.

B. Persian chronicles

Central for Sultanate, regional Sultanates, Mughals, and successor states.

Main works:

• Taj-ul-Ma’asir — Hasan Nizami

• Tabaqat-i Nasiri — Minhaj-i Siraj

• Khazain-ul-Futuh — Amir Khusrau

• Tarikh-i Firoz Shahi — Ziauddin Barani

• Fatawa-i Jahandari — Barani

• Tarikh-i Firoz Shahi — Shams-i Siraj Afif

• Futuh-us-Salatin — Isami

• Tarikh-i Mubarak Shahi — Yahya Sirhindi

• Baburnama — Babur

• Humayun-nama — Gulbadan Begum

• Akbarnama — Abu’l Fazl

• Ain-i Akbari — Abu’l Fazl

• Muntakhab-ut-Tawarikh — Badauni

• Tabaqat-i Akbari — Nizamuddin Ahmad

• Tuzuk-i Jahangiri — Jahangir

• Padshahnama — Abdul Hamid Lahori

• Shah Jahan Nama

• Alamgirnama

• Maasir-i Alamgiri

• Muntakhab-ul Lubab — Khafi Khan

• Maasir-ul-Umara

• Siyar-ul-Mutakhkherin — Ghulam Husain Khan Tabatabai

C. Deccan Sultanate and regional Persian sources

Important for Bahmani, Qutb Shahi, Adil Shahi, Nizam Shahi, Barid Shahi and later Asaf Jahi histories.

Examples:

• Burhan-i Ma’asir

• Tarikh-i Firishta / Gulshan-i Ibrahimi

• Tazkirat-ul-Muluk

• Qutb Shahi chronicles

• Adil Shahi court histories

• Asaf Jahi records

• Farmans, sanads, waqf records

• Persian and Dakhni literature

• Dakhni Urdu poetry

D. Inscriptions: Arabic, Persian, Urdu and regional languages

Used for mosques, tombs, forts, madrasas, dargahs, bridges, tanks, palaces, stepwells, gardens, and public works.

These inscriptions help reconstruct:

• Patronage

• Dates of construction

• Royal titulature

• Religious formulae

• Sufi networks

• Administrative authority

• Local elites

• Women patrons

• Urban development

The Arabic-Persian epigraphy branch of ASI and its publications are crucial for this field. Epigraphia Indica’s later supplements specifically included Indo-Islamic inscriptions. (MANAS)

E. Sufi sources

Major source category for Muslim social and religious history.

Types:

• Malfuzat

• Maktubat

• Tazkiras

• Silsila genealogies

• Shrine records

• Waqf records

• Dargah inscriptions

• Hagiographies

Important works:

• Fawa’id al-Fu’ad

• Siyar al-Auliya

• Akhbar al-Akhyar

• Siyar al-Arifin

• Maktubat-i Imam Rabbani

• Later Chishti, Qadiri, Suhrawardi, Naqshbandi records

Used for: Sufi orders, conversion, spirituality, urban life, inter-communal interaction, shrine economies, language and devotional culture.

F. Legal, administrative and documentary sources

• Farmans

• Sanads

• Waqf deeds

• Qazi records

• Fiqh texts used in India

• Fatawa-i Alamgiri

• Revenue records

• Jagir records

• Mansab records

• Court orders

• Madad-i ma‘ash grants

• Local Persian documents

• Estate and archive papers

Used for: law, taxation, landholding, religious endowments, state formation, Muslim elites, non-Muslim officials, agrarian society.

G. Coins of Muslim dynasties

Important groups:

• Arab-Sindh coins

• Ghaznavid and Ghurid coins

• Delhi Sultanate coins

• Bengal Sultanate coins

• Gujarat, Malwa, Jaunpur, Kashmir Sultanate coins

• Bahmani and Deccan Sultanate coins

• Mughal coinage

• Nawabi coinage: Awadh, Bengal, Hyderabad, Mysore, Carnatic, etc.

Used for: sovereignty, rulers’ titles, caliphal claims, mints, dates, religious formulae, economic zones.

H. Architecture and art

Muslim history of India is heavily reconstructed through material culture.

Sources:

• Mosques

• Dargahs

• Tombs

• Madrasas

• Forts

• Palaces

• Gardens

• Caravanserais

• Baolis

• Calligraphy

• Manuscript painting

• Miniatures

• Metalwork

• Textiles

• Arms and armour

• Ceramics

• Tilework

• Urban layouts

Examples:

• Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque

• Qutb Minar

• Alai Darwaza

• Tughlaqabad

• Firoz Shah Kotla

• Gulbarga fort and Jami Masjid

• Bidar monuments

• Golconda and Hyderabad

• Bijapur monuments

• Fatehpur Sikri

• Humayun’s Tomb

• Taj Mahal

• Red Fort

• Mughal gardens

I. Travellers and outsiders on Muslim-ruled India

Important because they describe court, cities, markets, roads, slavery, women, crafts, agriculture, military systems and religious practices.

• Ibn Battuta

• Marco Polo

• Abd al-Razzaq

• Afanasii Nikitin

• Duarte Barbosa

• Domingo Paes

• Fernao Nuniz

• Monserrate

• Tavernier

• Bernier

• Manucci

• Peter Mundy

• Thomas Roe

• William Hawkins

• Thevenot

• Manrique

NCERT specifically uses Al-Biruni, Ibn Battuta and Bernier to show how travellers’ accounts are useful but also shaped by the authors’ own perspective and audience.

J. Vernacular sources for Muslim-period India

Very important because Persian court texts often reflect elite perspectives.

Sources include:

• Bhakti poetry

• Sikh sources

• Marathi bakhars

• Rajasthani khyats

• Assamese buranjis

• Bengali literature

• Telugu, Kannada, Tamil court and temple records

• Dakhni Urdu literature

• Rekhta/Urdu poetry

• Local genealogies

• Temple and matha records

• Merchant records

• Oral traditions

These sources help balance Persian court narratives and show how Indo-Islamic rule was experienced regionally.

---

Secondary sources / historiographical traditions used to construct Indian history

A. Colonial-Orientalist scholarship

Important figures and works:

• William Jones

• James Prinsep

• Alexander Cunningham

• James Fergusson

• Max Müller

• Vincent Smith

• James Mill

• H. M. Elliot and John Dowson, The History of India as Told by Its Own Historians

• Archaeological Survey of India reports

• Epigraphia Indica

• Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum

Contribution: philology, inscriptions, archaeology, chronology.

Problem: often framed Indian history through colonial assumptions, racial theories, civilizational hierarchy, “Hindu period / Muslim period / British period” divisions.

B. Nationalist historians

Examples:

• R. C. Majumdar

• K. P. Jayaswal

• H. C. Raychaudhuri

• Jadunath Sarkar

• K. A. Nilakanta Sastri

• R. G. Bhandarkar

• D. R. Bhandarkar

Contribution: serious reconstruction of political, dynastic, cultural and civilizational history; emphasis on Indian agency.

Problem: sometimes elite-focused; sometimes framed around civilizational pride.

C. Marxist / materialist historians

Examples:

• D. D. Kosambi

• R. S. Sharma

• Romila Thapar

• Irfan Habib

• Bipan Chandra

• Satish Chandra

• Harbans Mukhia

Contribution: economy, class, agrarian structure, state formation, social change, feudalism debates, caste, urbanisation, production.

Problem: critics argue some works overemphasised economic structures or ideological frameworks.

D. Cambridge school / political history

Examples:

• Anil Seal

• Gordon Johnson

• Christopher Bayly

Contribution: networks, elites, locality, political negotiation.

E. Subaltern studies

Examples:

• Ranajit Guha

• Shahid Amin

• Partha Chatterjee

• Gyanendra Pandey

• David Hardiman

Contribution: peasants, tribes, workers, popular politics, memory, violence, non-elite voices.

F. Feminist and gender history

Examples:

• Uma Chakravarti

• Kumkum Roy

• Tanika Sarkar

• Nandini Chatterjee

• Ruby Lal

Contribution: women, gender, household, queenship, sexuality, labour, law, patriarchy, agency.

G. Region-focused and vernacular historiography

Examples:

• Burton Stein

• Noboru Karashima

• Cynthia Talbot

• Richard Eaton

• Muzaffar Alam

• Sanjay Subrahmanyam

• Catherine Asher

• Phillip Wagoner

• Eaton’s work on Bengal and the Deccan

• Regional historians of Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, Bengali, Assamese and Persianate sources

Contribution: moves beyond Delhi-centric history; studies Deccan, South India, Bengal, Gujarat, Malabar, Kashmir, Assam, Sindh, Punjab, Rajasthan, etc.

---

To summarize

Indian history was constructed from a layered archive: archaeology, inscriptions, coins, religious texts, secular literature, court chronicles, travellers’ accounts, regional writings, administrative documents, architecture, art, oral traditions and modern historical interpretation. 

Ancient and pre-Islamic history depend heavily on archaeology, inscriptions, coins and Sanskrit/Pali/Prakrit/Tamil sources; medieval and Muslim-period history add Persian chronicles, Arabic-Persian inscriptions, Sufi texts, farmans, revenue records, travellers’ accounts and Indo-Islamic material culture.